Scrolling a quarter

[dale]

Will a FD #2 with a reverse work on cutting a quarter?
Or will I have to purchase some metal cutting blades.
I am only planning on doing one quarter.
So I need your help on this.

dale

[woodgeek]

Dale, a FD#2 is ideal for American coins except for the modern nickel or penny which need metal cutting blades.
Do you have a good jig for holding the quarter? Be aware that your second or third quarter will turn out better than your first but by then it will be too late and you will be hooked.
Best of luck.

Rod

[normded]

fd spiral blades work on all the coins new and old. steve good shows how to make a coin holding jig on his sight scrollsawworkshop.blogspot.com. here a pic of it and how i customized it and woodgeek is right one two hooked. lol have fun

[STEVESSAWSHOP]

I have cut alot of Missouri quarters with #2 or 2/0 skip tooth wood blades. The reason I use wood blades are they are not as brittle and more forgiving when it comes to cutting corners. Also they cost less then metal blades. #2/0 or 5/0 metal blades will give you a better finish cut, but they break very easy. You can make a coin jig if you want, but all I do is take a scrap pc of pine 3" x 3" x 1/2" and glue the coin to the block with super glue around the edge of the coin. Two reason are #1 is to give the coin some backing to keep the cut out pc of metal from pinching the blade and breaking it. #2 the wood will also help clean the metal dust from the teeth of the blade and help cool the blade. You create more heat in metal than wood. After the cut just pop the glue off the quarter or you can use finger nail polish remover to dissolve the glue. It won't take alot of glue to hold so I glue the edge in spots on the quarter.

Hope this helps!

Steve

[woodgeek]

I will have to try the superglue method Steve. Always looking for a better way to do things. I use a bit of beeswax now to lube my blade especially when cutting thicker coins like old style silver dollars or half dollars.

I like Normed have found the exterior clamp that Steve Good uses to be largely unnecessary but the actual coin jig is great. I find that two mini bar clamps (.97 ea.) at harbor freight hold the two sides of the jig together pretty well.

[unixpro]

I've been trying a few quarters lately as well. I've done a variation on the jig, and I just tried the glue method Steve recommended above. For my money, I think I'll stick to the jig, since I've already got one done. If I were just going to do a few, I'd probably go with the glue. I'm planning to try a few dimes, loonies, and double loonies soon, so I think doing the glue for a few until I figure out if I like the results would be good.

Yeah, I kind of like Canadian coins. The quarter has a very nice elk on it, the dime has a ship, and the loonie and double loonie have loons. The Lucky Loonie has a loon in flight.

I used the FD 2/0 spiral for most so far, but I also did OK with the 2/0 SR. I've ordered some of the Olson metal cutting blades, but they haven't arrived yet.

The work is pretty fun, not too difficult, and seems to impress the people I've shown it to. The most popular so far were the Canadian quarter and the Wyoming quarter (bucking cowboy). This is an interesting variation on the craft!

[woodgeek]

Steve is the man! I just got back from the store with my trusty tube of superglue, glued a quarter on a 3 x 3 piece of 1/4 baltic ply. Waited a couple of minutes, drilled 3 holes and I was in business. Initial cutting was quick and easy with a fd puzzle blade.
I bought a reusable tube for economy's sake and a tube of krazy glue for comparison. I won't toss my jigs yet but I have to say if I had started out this way I might not have made any jigs.

[ubgoofy2003]

Hey, that glue idea is great, for coins. I have some Tagua nut slices I wish the glue would work on, but, it would break the slice when I try to loose it from the wood. I just lay the slice on my table & cut. The slices are a little bigger than the quarter, so it's not quite as tiny. Sounds like a great coin cutting idea though. Perk

[woodgeek]

For what it's worth the glue worked better when it was spread on the wood and the coin applied rather than the other way around. I also found the Krazy glue to have a better applicator and seemed to hold better. It could be that I just got an older batch of superglue but that has been my experience so far.
Finished a smokin George Washington quarter today and most of a couple of straight quarters. Too hot to spend much time out in the shop during the day.

[3_M]

Hi Dale,
I think you mean the the FD-2/0 instead of the # 2.
Many have cut the coins with a # 2/0.
Mike